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BHARATI AIRTEL
S. W. O. T. ANALYSIS
An analysis on BHARATI AIRTEL has been conducted to identify its
Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. This is a
detailed report on internal and external analysis of company’s
environment.

VIKASH RAI
Dayananda Sagar Business School
Roll no. 57
About the COMPANY:
Bharti Airtel formerly known as Bharti Tele-Ventures LTD (BTVL) is the largest
cellular service provider in India, with more than 110 million subscribers as of
2009. With this, Bharti is now the world's third-largest, single-country mobile
operator and sixth-largest integrated telecom operator. It also offers fixed line
services and broadband services. It offers its TELECOM services under the
Airtel brand and is headed by Sunil Bharti Mittal. The company also provides
telephone services and Internet access over DSL in 14 circles. It also acts as a
carrier for national and international long distance communication services. The
company has a submarine cable landing station at Chennai, which connects the
submarine cable connecting Chennai and Singapore.

The businesses at Bharti Airtel have always been structured into three individual
strategic business units (SBU's) - Mobile Services, Airtel Telemedia Services &
Enterprise Services. The mobile business provides mobile & fixed wireless services
using GSM technology across 23 telecom circles while the Airtel Telemedia Services
business offers broadband & telephone services in 95 cities and has recently
launched a Direct-to-Home (DTH) service, Airtel Digital TV. Shahrukh Khan is the
brand embassador of the mobile company and Kareena Kapoor andSaif Ali Khan are
the brand embassadors of the DTH company. The company provides end-to-end
data and enterprise services to the corporate customers through its nationwide fiber
optic backbone, last mile connectivity in fixed-line and mobile circles, VSATs, ISP
and international bandwidth access through the gateways and landing station.

Globally, Bharti Airtel is the 3rd largest in-country mobile operator by subscriber
base, behind China Mobile and China Unicom. In India, the company has a 24.6%
share of the wireless services market, followed by 17.7% for Reliance
Communications and 17.4% for Vodafone Essar. In January 2010, company anonced
that Manoj Kohili, joint managing director and chief executive of Indian and South
Asian operations, will become the chief executive of the international business
group from 1st of April 2010. He will be overseeing Bharti's overseas business.
Deputy Chief Executive Sanjay Kapoor will replace Mr. Kohli and will be the CEO
with effective from April 1 2010

Brands
Airtel: Airtel is a brand of telecommunication services
in India, Bangladesh and in Sri Lanka owned and operated by Bharti Airtel. It is
the largest cellular service provider in India in terms of number of subscribers.
Services are offered under the brand name Airtel: Mobile Services
(using GSM Technology), Broadband & Telephone Services (Fixed line, Internet
Connectivity(DSL) and Leased Line), Long Distance Services and Enterprise
Services (Telecommunications Consulting for corporates). It has presence in all
23 circles of the country and covers 71% of the current population (as of
Financial Year 2007). Airtel has also launched 16Mb/s broadband plans in India,
making it the first ISP to do so.

Airtel Sri Lanka: In December 2008, Bharti Airtel rolled out third
generation services in Sri Lanka in association with Singapore
Telecommunications. SingTel is a major player in the 3G space in Asia. It
operates third generation networks in several markets across Asia. Airtel's
operation in Sri Lanka, known as Airtel Lanka, commenced operations on the
12th of January 2009.

Airtel in Bangladesh: In January 2010, it was announced that the

Bangladesh Telecommuncations Regulatrory Commission (BTRC) of The
People's Republic of Bangladesh had given Bharti Airtel the go ahead to acquire
a 70% stake in the Bangladesh business of Abu Dhabi based Warid Telcom. The
latter had till date invested a total of $600 million, with plans to bring their
Bangladesh investments to the $1 billion mark. Airtel's 70% stake in the
company is said to be at a cost of an initial $300 million. Warid will be later
named Airtel and the price of the sim will go higher and call rates will be more
lower....

Touchtel: Until September 18, 2004, Bharti provided fixed-line telephony

and broadband services under the Touchtel brand. Bharti now provides all
telecom services including fixed-line services under a common brand "Airtel".

BlackBerry: On 19 October 2004 Airtel announced the launch of a

BlackBerry Wireless Solution in India. The launch is a result of a tie-up between
Bharti Tele-Ventures Limited and Research In Motion(RIM).

Digital TV: On 9 October 2008, Airtel joined the DTH bandwagon in India
with Airtel Digital TV, a Direct-to-Home Television service.

iPhone 3G: The Apple iPhone 3G was rolled out in India on 22 August 2008
via Airtel & Vodafone.

Merger talks
In May 2008, it emerged that Bharti Airtel was exploring the possibility of
buying the MTN Group, a South Africa-based telecommunications company with
coverage in 21 countries in Africaand the Middle East. The Financial
Times reported that Bharti was considering offering US$45 billion for a 100%
stake in MTN, which would be the largest overseas acquisition ever by an Indian
firm. However, both sides emphasize the tentative nature of the talks,
while The Economist magazine noted, "If anything, Bharti would be marrying
up," as MTN has more subscribers, higher revenues and broader geographic
coverage. However, the talks fell apart as MTN group tried to reverse the
negotiations by making Bharti almost a subsidiary of the new company.

In May 2009, Bharti Airtel again confirmed that it is in Talks with MTN and
companies have now agreed discuss the potential transaction exclusively by
July 31, 2009. Bharti Airtel said in a statement “Bharti Airtel Ltd is pleased to
announce that it has renewed its effort for a significant partnership with MTN
Group".

Talks eventually ended without agreement, some sources stating that due to
the South African government opposition.
Sponsorship
Bharti Airtel signed a five-year deal with ESPN Star Sports to become the title
sponsor of the Champions League Twenty20 cricket tournament. The
tournament itself is named "Airtel Champions League Twenty20."

Airtel 3G
Airtel plans to launch the nationwide 3G services in India in the second quarter
of 2010.

HIGHLIGHTS:
» Bharti Airtel launches India’s first Mobile App Store – Airtel App Central

» Bharti Airtel launches Unlimited Sunday on Fixed Line for Valentine’s Day

» Airtel and RIM Launch the BlackBerry Bold 9700 Smartphone in India

» Airtel launches the first ever Family Tunes on Fixed Line

» Bharti Airtel announces its third quarter ended Dec 31, 2009 on Jan 22,
2010

» Bharti Airtel and Limelight Networks ® announce strategic partnership for

global Content Delivery Network (CDN) services

BUSINESS DIVISION:
a) MOBILE SERVICES.
b) AIRTEL TELEMEDIA SERVICES.
c) ENTERPRISE SERVICES.
d) DIGITAL TV SERVICES.
S. W. O. T. Analysis
SWOT Analysis is a strategic planning method used to evaluate the
Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats involved in a project pr in
a business venture. It involves specifying the objectives of the business
venture or project and identifying the internal and external factors that are
favorable and unfavorable to achieving that objective.

SWOT analysis is a tool for auditing an organization and its environment. It is

the first stage of planning and helps marketers to focus on key issues. A key
tool in the strategic planning process can also be applied to career planning.
This tool is a marketing analysis using the SWOT technique. A SWOT analysis
focuses on the internal and external environments, examining strengths and
weaknesses in the internal environment and opportunities and threats in the
external environment. A SWOT analysis may be incorporated into the
strategic planning model. Strategic Planning, including SWOT and SCAN
analysis, has been the subject of much research.
 • Strengths: attributes of the person or company that are helpful to
achieving the objective.

• Weaknesses: attributes of the person or company that are harmful to

achieving the objective.

• Opportunities: external conditions that are helpful to achieving the

objective

• Threats: external conditions which could do damage to the objective.

Identification of SWOTs is essential because subsequent steps in the process

of planning for achievement of the selected objective may be derived from
the SWOTs. First, the decision makers have to determine whether the
objective is attainable, given the SWOTs. If the objective is NOT attainable a
different objective must be selected and the process repeated. The SWOT
analysis is often used in academia to highlight and identify strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It is particularly helpful in identifying
areas for development.

I E

N X

T T

E E

R R

N N

A A

L L

STRENGTHS
a) Bharti Airtel has more than 65 million customers (July 2008). It is the largest
cellular provider in India, and also supplies broadband and telephone services
- as well as many other telecommunications services to both domestic and
corporate customers.
 b) Other stakeholders in Bharti Airtel include Sony-Ericsson, Nokia - and Sing
Tel, with whom they hold a strategic alliance. This means that the business
has access to knowledge and technology from other parts of the
telecommunications world.

c) The company has covered the entire Indian nation with its network. This has
underpinned its large and rising customer base.

WEAKNESSES
a) An often cited original weakness is that when the business was started by
Sunil Bharti Mittal over 15 years ago, the business has little knowledge and
experience of how a cellular telephone system actually worked. So the start-
up business had to outsource to industry experts in the field.

b) Until recently Airtel did not own its own towers, which was a particular
strength of some of its competitors such as Hutchison Essar. Towers are
important if your company wishes to provide wide coverage nationally.

c) The fact that the Airtel has not pulled off a deal with South Africa's MTN could
signal the lack of any real emerging market investment opportunity for the
business once the Indian market has become mature.

OPPORTUNITIES
a) The company possesses a customized version of the Google search engine
which will enhance broadband services to customers. The tie-up with Google
 can only enhance the Airtel brand, and also provides advertising
opportunities in Indian for Google.

b) Global telecommunications and new technology brands see Airtel as a key

strategic player in the Indian market. The new iPhone will be launched in
India via an Airtel distributorship. Another strategic partnership is held with
BlackBerry Wireless Solutions.

c) Despite being forced to outsource much of its technical operations in the

early days, this allowed Airtel to work from its own blank sheet of paper, and
to question industry approaches and practices - for example replacing the
Revenue-Per-Customer model with a Revenue-Per-Minute model which is
better suited to India, as the company moved into small and remote villages
and towns.

d) The company is investing in its operation in 120,000 to 160,000 small villages

every year. It sees that less well-off consumers may only be able to afford a
few tens of Rupees per call, and also so that the business benefits are
scalable - using its 'Matchbox' strategy.

e) Bharti Airtel is embarking on another joint venture with Vodafone Essar and
Idea Cellular to create a new independent tower company called Indus
Towers. This new business will control more than 60% of India's network
towers. IPTV is another potential new service that could underpin the
company's long-term strategy.

THREATS
a) Airtel and Vodafone seem to be having an on/off relationship. Vodafone which
owned a 5.6% stake in the Airtel business sold it back to Airtel, and instead
invested in its rival Hutchison Essar. Knowledge and technology previously
available to Airtel now moves into the hands of one of its competitors.

b) The quickly changing pace of the global telecommunications industry could

tempt Airtel to go along the acquisition trail which may make it vulnerable if
the world goes into recession. Perhaps this was an impact upon the decision
not to proceed with talks about the potential purchase of South Africa's MTN
in May 2008. This opened the door for talks between Reliance
Communication's Anil Ambani and MTN, allowing a competing Inidan
industrialist to invest in the new emerging African telecommunications
market.

c) Bharti Airtel could also be the target for the takeover vision of other global
telecommunications players that wish to move into the Indian market.
BRIEF SUMMARY:
STRENGTH WEAKNESS OPPORTUNITY THREATS
• Massive • Lack of • Aggressive • Increased
Economies International Move into the Competition
of Scale Management Rural Market
from Large Experience • Regulatory
Subscriber • International Risks on
Base • Weaker Investments MNP
Position of
• Strong Fixed-Line • Aggressive • Hyper
Brand name Services Bundling across Growth for
in Consumer Services Mobile Slows
Market • Late Start of Quicker than
DTH TV Expected
• Marketing Services
Driven Low-
Cost Model

CONCLUSION:
Airtel comes to you from Bharti Airtel Limited, India's largest integrated and the
first private telecom services provider with a footprint in all the 23 telecom circles.
Bharti Airtel since its inception has been at the forefront of technology and has
steered the course of the telecom sector in the country with its world class products
and services. The businesses at Bharti Airtel have been structured into three
individual strategic business units (SBU's) - Mobile Services, Airtel Telemedia
Services & Enterprise Services.

Thus the company should explore its opportunities to take it to its advantage and
gain edge upon its competitors. Weakness should be worked upon to convert them
into strengths and threats must be coped with finding new opportunities.